Finally Figured Out which Pot I want
Here’s one from my collection, to share, it’s one kind of Julunzhu shape that was common in the late Qing, early Republican era. Real luck that the lid on this one has a decent fit, old pots rarely do, but with this design an ill-fitting lid would be more annoying than usual...
This shape is still being done, so you might be able to find a replica of it.
This shape is still being done, so you might be able to find a replica of it.
- 3DE6FFE8-6401-4939-A638-7F218DDAA788.jpeg (13.03 KiB) Viewed 3913 times
Yes that's a nice pot. I found an image that contained the outlines of teaware with the name of the shape under each. The shape I'm interested in is in that image. Of course the names are in chinese... I asked my son if he could read it as he completed three years of chinese in high school but he couldn't.Bok wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:16 amHere’s one from my collection, to share, it’s one kind of Julunzhu shape that was common in the late Qing, early Republican era. Real luck that the lid on this one has a decent fit, old pots rarely do, but with this design an ill-fitting lid would be more annoying than usual...
This shape is still being done, so you might be able to find a replica of it.
I contacted the person who made the video to see if they can remember where they sourced the pot but so far no response. Hopefully due to holidays.
If it was one of the popular shapes right now, well I'd get my hopes up. But seeing the difficulty in finding any that resemble the tea pot in the pic, I'm not hoping tooo much, just some.
I mean a couple of the pots that peeps have posted here are close. I might get one of the pots if I could find them. But I really like simplistic in form and functionality. I might start another thread asking for suggestions. I don't have the experience for buying yixing tea pots, won't buy one that even pretends to be old. I don't have a clue about what type of clay even though I've watched lots of videos on different types of clays. Yes I do like that shape, and I will get a tea pot in that shape at some point, but right now, I would just like teaware that I can start using. A nice pot and gaiwan made of clay that aren't going to leach added chemicals that are gonna turn my skin green. Handmade would be assam (awesome) as I appreciate the skill and time that it takes to make a pot by hand. Now, I'd be skeptical if an expert told me they could tell from pictures all those qualities and there's always the famous "the teapot sent wasn't the one in the pictures" scam. I read a lot of articles that say experience buyers are getting scammed, even sources are getting scammed. So how is a newbie supposed to be able to decide what they want, find a reputable source who themselves won't get scammed, and get a nice bit of teaware?
won't buy one that even pretends to be old. ..I agree with this one.
I would just like teaware that I can start using. ...simple porcelain gaiwan
A nice pot and gaiwan made of clay that aren't going to leach added chemicals ... you are not going to see it from the picture .
You would have to learn bit about the chemistry :
1) find out what chemicals they use in order to keep the clay "stable" in kiln when fired. (means the chem. which reduces the contraction of the clay to minimize cracking or defects like the lid is not sitting right, nozzle or handle are not straight etc.
2) Which chem. is used for making the clay more "stretchy" , which is useful for machine made molding ( clay is not ripping apart when goes trough the rolling drums ) .
3) which chems. they use for coloring. A document made in China ( I think somebody reposed on YT as well ) where was some Yixing factory offering like a Menu of Desired Colors and instead of the prices on the side as on restaurant menu is, there were the chemicals. So was like : Dark green .....FeNh2 ...something something... (just making it up, Im not chemist ) ..but something like that. Funny that they aren't even hiding it, sad that they are doing it.
4) find out which one of those chemicals actually can leak ( dissolve ) in to your tea ( water 100C ) from the clay after being fired in the kiln.
I read a lot of articles that say experience buyers are getting scammed, even sources are getting scammed. So how is a newbie supposed to be able to decide what they want, find a reputable source who themselves won't get scammed, and get a nice bit of teaware?...yep, agree also with that one.
Some even very famous vendors have that problem and I'd would suspect that they don't even bother with authenticity anymore. Not talking about the tea-ware only. The tea biz is so full of fakes that honest vendor spends so much time to source the real stuff and on other side the customer wouldn't appreciate the price ( coz going for very old gu shu is time consuming for example , and time = is also money ) . Similar for the teapots. People in general want to hear that product is authentic , organic , handmade and cheap ( or at least affordable for them, which is also individual ) ...so some vendors follow that demand despite possible failure ( means some customers might eventually find out that's not true ) . As long as the number of believers / buyers is higher than complaining customers. I can see that concept working on couple of very known vendors whom reputation is solid already so can go much further ( dare ) with some claims.
Same as with an organic tea ( topic also her in forum ) , I've never heard of any customer buying some teapot from vendor and posting review such : " I've paid lab for running the tests to find out if any chems. in that clay , and this clay is clean..good vendor! " Which in this case should rather mean : "This tea pot is good!" , coz it doesn't guarantee the others are clean as well. There are some portable tests for heavy metals , but not sure how reliable / sensitive it is.
We generally do Jianshui pottery ,since we live near and just go to studio and order the batch ( hand made ) . I've spent there few weeks observing what , where , how , who ...so I know some stuff alright. We also have relatives there making a pottery ( but expensive one only for CN customers ) , so knowing some background stuff is also helpful.
But can not say anything about Yixing though (although it's on my list).
I wouldn't dare to recommend any vendor but in general I'd start looking for somebody who lives there or at least near to there. If there is any foreigner ( I'd be skeptical ordering from CN vendor , coz I do biz with many of them ) who knows the stuff and doing it for a while, there is a chance you get good teapot for fair price.
In such a time of powerful internet is possible to pretend to be anything doing whatever thing , so it's useful also read the vendors blogs . you will find out the timing ( if written all in "1day" or in span of some time ) and most importantly "how it's written" .
Is it a beautiful nice and to read tea story with all wonders of Gong Fu ceremony world or are they writing some real stuff ? ..u know what I mean.
I see many new vendors popping out of nowhere , doing videos, blogs, instagrams ..and it's all bout the bright side of the tea culture. I call it The Tea Romance.
Not many vendors write the real stuff coz either don't know or not suitable for the business ( means customer to know ) .
You can also email the vendor with the questions and see the respond. The experienced salesman will answer something like: our pottery is certified , clean, we test it , we source from trusted source and blablabla.
The honest vendor who lives in China and doing biz here, would write you a completely different answer.
Even private teapot maker doesn't know what is in the clay because buying it from the separate manufacturing company in some bulk shape already prepared for molding. The master doesn't go out to the mining place with shovel to get it all done from the very beginning
Different case can be a manufacture / factory, but those would have to keep their numbers in green ( less defects , more orders, more variability in colors ..etc. ) , so chem. are more than likely applied.
The demand for bigger quantity and low price for something calls for adjustments , same with food , clothes etc.
There is a pottery which is not that popular and still hand made ( or wheel made ) with clean clay coz locals don't know how to apply it and no need because making in small scale. Usually made by some Yunnan ethic minority , so more complex stuff like teapot is bit difficult to them to make. We found some last year but didn't buy coz the precision of work still wasn't there and price was too high for what it was.
Anyway, good luck with search!
I would just like teaware that I can start using. ...simple porcelain gaiwan
A nice pot and gaiwan made of clay that aren't going to leach added chemicals ... you are not going to see it from the picture .
You would have to learn bit about the chemistry :
1) find out what chemicals they use in order to keep the clay "stable" in kiln when fired. (means the chem. which reduces the contraction of the clay to minimize cracking or defects like the lid is not sitting right, nozzle or handle are not straight etc.
2) Which chem. is used for making the clay more "stretchy" , which is useful for machine made molding ( clay is not ripping apart when goes trough the rolling drums ) .
3) which chems. they use for coloring. A document made in China ( I think somebody reposed on YT as well ) where was some Yixing factory offering like a Menu of Desired Colors and instead of the prices on the side as on restaurant menu is, there were the chemicals. So was like : Dark green .....FeNh2 ...something something... (just making it up, Im not chemist ) ..but something like that. Funny that they aren't even hiding it, sad that they are doing it.
4) find out which one of those chemicals actually can leak ( dissolve ) in to your tea ( water 100C ) from the clay after being fired in the kiln.
I read a lot of articles that say experience buyers are getting scammed, even sources are getting scammed. So how is a newbie supposed to be able to decide what they want, find a reputable source who themselves won't get scammed, and get a nice bit of teaware?...yep, agree also with that one.
Some even very famous vendors have that problem and I'd would suspect that they don't even bother with authenticity anymore. Not talking about the tea-ware only. The tea biz is so full of fakes that honest vendor spends so much time to source the real stuff and on other side the customer wouldn't appreciate the price ( coz going for very old gu shu is time consuming for example , and time = is also money ) . Similar for the teapots. People in general want to hear that product is authentic , organic , handmade and cheap ( or at least affordable for them, which is also individual ) ...so some vendors follow that demand despite possible failure ( means some customers might eventually find out that's not true ) . As long as the number of believers / buyers is higher than complaining customers. I can see that concept working on couple of very known vendors whom reputation is solid already so can go much further ( dare ) with some claims.
Same as with an organic tea ( topic also her in forum ) , I've never heard of any customer buying some teapot from vendor and posting review such : " I've paid lab for running the tests to find out if any chems. in that clay , and this clay is clean..good vendor! " Which in this case should rather mean : "This tea pot is good!" , coz it doesn't guarantee the others are clean as well. There are some portable tests for heavy metals , but not sure how reliable / sensitive it is.
We generally do Jianshui pottery ,since we live near and just go to studio and order the batch ( hand made ) . I've spent there few weeks observing what , where , how , who ...so I know some stuff alright. We also have relatives there making a pottery ( but expensive one only for CN customers ) , so knowing some background stuff is also helpful.
But can not say anything about Yixing though (although it's on my list).
I wouldn't dare to recommend any vendor but in general I'd start looking for somebody who lives there or at least near to there. If there is any foreigner ( I'd be skeptical ordering from CN vendor , coz I do biz with many of them ) who knows the stuff and doing it for a while, there is a chance you get good teapot for fair price.
In such a time of powerful internet is possible to pretend to be anything doing whatever thing , so it's useful also read the vendors blogs . you will find out the timing ( if written all in "1day" or in span of some time ) and most importantly "how it's written" .
Is it a beautiful nice and to read tea story with all wonders of Gong Fu ceremony world or are they writing some real stuff ? ..u know what I mean.
I see many new vendors popping out of nowhere , doing videos, blogs, instagrams ..and it's all bout the bright side of the tea culture. I call it The Tea Romance.
Not many vendors write the real stuff coz either don't know or not suitable for the business ( means customer to know ) .
You can also email the vendor with the questions and see the respond. The experienced salesman will answer something like: our pottery is certified , clean, we test it , we source from trusted source and blablabla.
The honest vendor who lives in China and doing biz here, would write you a completely different answer.
Even private teapot maker doesn't know what is in the clay because buying it from the separate manufacturing company in some bulk shape already prepared for molding. The master doesn't go out to the mining place with shovel to get it all done from the very beginning
Different case can be a manufacture / factory, but those would have to keep their numbers in green ( less defects , more orders, more variability in colors ..etc. ) , so chem. are more than likely applied. The demand for bigger quantity and low price for something calls for adjustments , same with food , clothes etc.
There is a pottery which is not that popular and still hand made ( or wheel made ) with clean clay coz locals don't know how to apply it and no need because making in small scale. Usually made by some Yunnan ethic minority , so more complex stuff like teapot is bit difficult to them to make. We found some last year but didn't buy coz the precision of work still wasn't there and price was too high for what it was.
Anyway, good luck with search!
You could always just ask an Yixing potter to make a custom teapot for you. Usually it's enough to show them a picture and they'll know what to do and how to do it.
Can you buy in china? And speak Chinese? In that case I could recommend a vendor for you.
Or if not I can recommend another yixing potter from whom you can get a custom order.
But custom orders start from about $400+, made with benshan material.
Thanks! I have a porcelain gaiwan now. It's pretty small, but some of the teapots say they are smaller. I don't know how someone would brew enough tea to drink in it. I know multiple infusions... but I don't think those pots are intended for sharing.
I received a response about where the person bought the pot. It's a one of a kind... he said that he'd check into his source to see if they have any more... if it's one of a kind how could the source have more? but if they don't maybe commission several of the pots from the artist.
So low odds that I will get a pot like that. Sowell.
I'm leaning toward just getting a modern clay gaiwan larger than the porcelain one I have now. I need to learn more before spending too much $$ on a pot on a whim. I still want a pot several pots, but need to learn more.
Yes, I also recommend simply a larger +-150ml thicker walled gaiwan. It’s a perfect size for sharing and can be very cheap as well. The one I have cost 5$ and is used often in group tastings.